---
title: "I sent 165,000 sales texts in 8 weeks. Here's what nobody in SMS outreach tells you"
description: "What 165,000 sales texts in 8 weeks taught us: carriers block words, not just numbers, check each carrier apart, and a reply isn't interest."
url: https://talalevel.com/blog/what-165000-sales-texts-taught-us/
date: 2026-11-08
updated: 2026-11-08
---

# I sent 165,000 sales texts in 8 weeks. Here's what nobody in SMS outreach tells you

Carriers block words, not just numbers: asking for "a number" or an "amount", or using the word "underwriter", got our texts blocked, so test new wording on about 100 numbers per carrier and check T-Mobile and Verizon separately. A reply isn't interest and "who is this?" isn't a no: count interest by reading the threads, and answer in minutes, in the lead's time zone.

Every time I look up SMS outreach tips I get the same stuff. "Personalize your message." "Provide value." "Stay compliant." Cool, thanks.

Nobody tells you which words get your texts blocked, what a real reply rate looks like, or what to do when someone answers "who is this?". We've sent 165,000 texts to business owners in the last 8 weeks (on pace for over a million a year) and got 11,500+ replies back. I'm pretty new at this and I definitely don't know everything, a lot of it I learned the expensive way. But here's what I've figured out so far. Real numbers, no course at the end.

## 1. Carriers block words, not just numbers.

One follow-up of ours ("...even a rough number helps") lost 1,118 of 2,000 texts to carrier blocks. Another one that asked "what would you put it toward?" got blocked on 82 of 86 T-Mobile numbers. We swapped that one line for "how much could you use?" and it passed 42 of 43. What got us blocked: asking for "a number" or an "amount", and the word "underwriter". What was fine: "paid", "ads", "leads".

## 2. Check T-Mobile and Verizon separately.

AT&T blocked basically nothing for us. So your overall delivery % can look fine while T-Mobile is eating half your texts. Always split it by carrier.

## 3. Test new wording on ~100 per carrier first.

Before a new text goes to thousands, send it to about 100 on each carrier and check what got through. That's how we caught the bad ones before they burned a whole list.

## 4. "Who is this?" isn't a no.

38% of people who replied "who is this?" kept talking after we answered. Everyone else who replied without saying stop: 43%. Basically the same. Just answer it like a normal person.

## 5. A reply isn't interest.

Our system was marking almost anyone who replied as "interested", even a bare "who is this?". When we actually read the threads, 11 out of 838 delivered texts turned into someone agreeing to talk (that list was home service owners). Count by reading the threads, not by labels.

## 6. Ask something they actually have an opinion on.

We A/B tested a cute opener against a straight question about their past marketing ("when you've paid for ads or leads before, did you get real jobs, or mostly likes and clicks?"). About 3,100 texts. Same STOP rate (1.8%), but the question got half as many "bye"s. Real conversations were a tie though, so it's not magic.

## 7. Speed beats the perfect script.

When someone replies, answer in minutes, not hours. We ended up putting an AI on replies. It's held 900+ conversations: median reply under 2 minutes, about 1 in 5 of its replies went to texts that came in at night or on a Sunday, and about 1% of the people it texted said stop. I wrote up how that's set up, and every mistake it made, [here](https://talalevel.com/blog/ai-answered-900-sales-conversations/).

## 8. Text in their time zone, not yours.

We send in two waves, 8am and 7:30pm in the lead's local time.

## 9. Your daily limit is per brand.

T-Mobile capped us at 2,000 texts a day for our registration. Plan your volume around that, not around how many numbers you have.

None of this is fancy. That's kind of the point.

I ended up building my whole CRM mistake by mistake, calling, pipeline, texts, all of it. The numbers from the whole floor are in [165,000 texts and 19,000 calls in eight weeks](https://talalevel.com/blog/two-rep-floor-165000-texts-19000-calls/). If you've learned something about texting that nobody talks about, tell me: hello@talalevel.com. I'm not gonna hide anything either.

## Questions

### Which words get sales texts blocked by carriers?

In our sends, asking for "a number" or an "amount", and the word "underwriter", got texts blocked. A follow-up that asked "what would you put it toward?" was blocked on 82 of 86 T-Mobile numbers; with that line swapped for "how much could you use?" it passed 42 of 43. "Paid", "ads" and "leads" were fine.

### Should I check text delivery by carrier?

Yes. AT&T blocked basically nothing for us, so the overall delivery rate can look fine while T-Mobile is eating half the texts. Split it by carrier and check T-Mobile and Verizon separately.

### How do you test new text wording before a big send?

Before a new text goes to thousands, send it to about 100 numbers on each carrier and check what got through. That caught the wordings that would have burned a whole list.

### Is a reply to a sales text a sign of interest?

Not on its own. Our system was marking almost anyone who replied as interested, even a bare "who is this?". When we read the threads, 11 out of 838 delivered texts turned into someone agreeing to talk, on a list of home service owners.

### Is the daily texting limit per number?

No, it is per brand. T-Mobile capped us at 2,000 texts a day for our registration, so plan your volume around that, not around how many numbers you have.